A top political adviser who worked for former speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) has torched Pelosi’s successor, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), for failing to mobilize Democrats against President Donald Trump’s administration.
Ashley Etienne, who helped craft Pelosi’s messaging strategy for most of Trump’s first term, echoed concerns circulating in Democratic circles that Jeffries “hasn’t shown enough backbone as a leader, and that his organizational skills are deficient at a time when strong, creative leadership is badly needed,” Politico reported following an interview with Etienne this week.
“Trump is just giving us all this incredible red meat,” Etienne told Politico. “I mean, incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s like the biggest gift any party has been given by the opposition and we’re just squandering it.”
Etienne’s criticism reflects growing frustration among Democrats about Jeffries’s leadership as the party struggles to rally behind a national leader and lacks a frontrunner in the 2028 presidential primary. Recent polls from CNN and NBC News show that the party’s favorability has plunged to record lows of 29 percent and 27 percent, respectively.
Many Democratic officials have already called on Jeffries to step up and adopt a more aggressive stance against Trump, NOTUS reported last month. Rep. Jared Huffman (Calif.) said, “I am, personally, of the view that America needs to see a lot more of [Jeffries],” while Rep. Don Beyer (Va.) told NOTUS that “it’d be great” if Jeffries could emerge as “that one unitary Democratic voice who would be the counterpoint to Trump’s voice.”
But Etienne said Jeffries has been indecisive and slow to act. “He takes too much counsel and then takes too long to make a decision,” Etienne told Politico, suggesting that the House minority leader may not have “a handle on the caucus” or “a hand on how to actually land some punches on Donald Trump.”
Etienne also accused Jeffries’s team of deliberately distancing itself from Pelosi. Etienne said she offered to help Jeffries’s staff but that staffers told her, “The members don’t want any Pelosi.”
“I was hearing from leadership staff that the leadership on Capitol Hill right now wants to sort of move away from that Pelosi era—that they … don’t want to embrace anyone or anything that’s like Pelosi,” Etienne said. “Which I just think is the dumbest s-h-i-t ever.”
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